News and Views

Future Leaders - Meet Waqas Durrani

The Naked CEO Alex Malley is passionate about investing in our future leaders. He believes in nurturing and highlighting talent, and inspiring young people to achieve their true potential.

Here we shine a spotlight on some of those rising stars currently studying at universities across the globe! What are their hopes? What are their career dreams? Their answers may surprise and inspire you!

Meet our next Future Leader, Waqas Durrani, a Masters of Professional Accounting Specialisation student from University of Tasmania. What makes him a Future Leader? Read on and find out!

What is your career dream? My dream career is to be the CEO of a multinational company.

How would you answer a question about your greatest strengths and weaknesses in a job interview? My greatest strength is my belief that “nothing is impossible”. This gives me the drive and motivation to start up anything and make sure I achieve results! I used to spend a lot of time on projects making sure everything is perfect but I’ve learned to delegate authority to others and I’ve come to realise synergy works best for success.

How would you like an employer to describe you after your first interview with them? Waqas is a good person oozing energy and fun. He is highly motivated and willing to learn new skills.

How have you built experience while you’ve been studying? I’m an employee of UTAS as a Student engagement leader. Apart from that as a student I’ve been involved in a lot of volunteering activities and an active position holder of many clubs and societies.

If you could spend a week with any company in the world, which one would it be? Why? I would want to work at the Walt Disney Company. It would be interesting to see how they’ve managed to be the global leader in family entertainment. Also, I love cartoons!

Who do you admire? / Who is your hero? Why? I have a high regard for Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. I like him for his charismatic personality and leadership qualities. His quote “Failure is a word unknown to me” inspires me the most.

What made you choose the course you are currently completing at uni? I like the pathway of MPAS into CPA. It gives you accreditation for the foundation courses and smoothes the transition for further studies.

As a five-year old, what did you think you wanted to be when you grew up? I wanted to be an astronaut as a child and wanted to visit the moon.

What do you look for in a professional mentor? If you have one, how did you approach them? I look for a charismatic personality and an honest person. I approached my mentor at one of the career expo at UTAS and since then he’s been a great guiding figure.

What is the one question you would like to ask Alex? Many students work voluntarily in organisations to get work experience. After how long do you think is the right time to ask the employer to consider one for a paid position?